“My years in Pittsburgh were two of my most enjoyable years playing hockey,” said Rupp, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. “They made it a place where everybody was accountable. It was fun coming to the rink. Playing under Dan Bylsma and Mike Yeo, you were just excited to come to practice every day.

“I know that’s just how [Yeo] is and how he coaches and I would expect it’s the same thing here. I’m just looking forward to battling for Mike and my new teammates.”

Because the Wild plays a similar system to the Penguins, it shouldn’t take long for the 6-foot-5, 243-pound Rupp to reaccustom himself.

“I just remember practices were real up-tempo and the way the game was played was just getting north with the puck as quick as you could,” Rupp said.

It was fun watching the likes of Rupp, Laraque, Roberts, Staal, Talbot et all cycle the puck in the offenive zone for a full minute shift. Rarely would they actually get a shot off, but the momentum boost was a riot.

FallenHero96 wrote:Rupp with some nice quotes about the pens in the MN paper today:

“My years in Pittsburgh were two of my most enjoyable years playing hockey,” said Rupp, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. “They made it a place where everybody was accountable. It was fun coming to the rink. Playing under Dan Bylsma and Mike Yeo, you were just excited to come to practice every day.”

Everyone was accountable? I guess Rupp was declined membership in Geno's country club.

FallenHero96 wrote:Rupp with some nice quotes about the pens in the MN paper today:

“My years in Pittsburgh were two of my most enjoyable years playing hockey,” said Rupp, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. “They made it a place where everybody was accountable. It was fun coming to the rink. Playing under Dan Bylsma and Mike Yeo, you were just excited to come to practice every day.”

Everyone was accountable? I guess Rupp was declined membership in Geno's country club.

mikey287 wrote:Devils acquire Andrei Loktionov for a 5th. Even if he doesn't quite pan out, that's a good amount of talent to acquire for a 5th round pick, nice job by them...

Think they could've gotten more if he didn't ask for the trade?

The market just isn't that strong for a guy like Lokti...he's Russian, he's not particularly fast, he has nice hands but not a ton of finish it seems and with no NHL experience...his contract is up at the end of the season, he's certainly a flight risk. Not because he's a prima donna like Zherdev, but because there's a better opportunity for him back home. Guaranteed KHLer, not a guaranteed NHLer. Guaranteed 6-digit salary, I would think. Here, on a two-way deal, he might only make $65K, $75K, $85K.

He was a fifth rounder out of Windsor if I recall (played with Adam Henrique there), so the Kings got an equal return on their investment asset wise - in a vacuum. An organization wouldn't make this trade if they didn't think they would ever use him, so I hope New Jersey puts him to use. I'd like to see him get a chance, he's got some talent to him.

Yep, mikey, you're right. Just heard that year and term a few minutes ago on CSN. I think that's an overpayment for how he's been playing vis-a-vis his age, do you?

But I guess the Flyers are desperate. If they lose him, then they're in big trouble.

Nailed it with the bolded. Rest doesn't require an answer if the bolded is true.

I think it's fine for a one-year deal, you just need to keep him until you can figure out what you're doing back there. Coburn has not been very good for them this year, Grossmann is only a third pairing guy, Schenn has been good but he's not a top pairing guy. They don't have answers to the problems they have, they have incongruency between coach and GM. The safest thing to do is buy time. Timonen buys them time. Whether it's market value or not (it's not, especially when Upper Limit declining is factored in next year), it needed to be done.

But think of the predicament further: other options.

Free agency market is bone dry. The trade market is a slippery slope for Philadelphia as any major trade would involve trading recently acquired assets. There's not a lot they can do. This is as close to an example as you're going to find in recent times for "what if an NHL club was run like a 14 year old runs a video game team?" Investing big in players that don't fit what your coach wants, telling the coach to start changing it up, and then have the coach reject your meddling...it's not good. It's a prom-night-pregnancy of a plan: it was poorly conceived and the consequences that follow are tumultuous...

The Flyers have Wile E. Coyote (Super Genius) handling their asset/roster/cap management, and it seems they're in a weird place right now--a lot of uncertainty at many key positions.

mikey, yeah, Coburn hasn't been at all good this year. You could go a while and forget that he was even on the roster, and that's not a bad thing given his position. But lately, to me, he's looking... I think "awkward" is the word I'd use. From what I saw he had a good game vs. TBL the other night, so maybe it's rust falling off. (Aside: I can't believe he's only 27; it seems like he's been in the NHL longer than that.) I scratched my head a little at seeing him named to Chicken Parm's Team Canada for Sochi: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=415401 . But then again, you can't always take those "So-and-so's teams for..." things too seriously. I haven't put the selection, as unofficial as it is, in context of all other options Hockey Canada has for stay-at-homers, though.

PHI has a trap game vs. FLA (all games vs. FLA are trap games IMO--LOL) tonight. Go, Panthers.